Mahershala Ali wins Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for Green Book

That green book is looking gold! Mahershala Ali has taken home the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of real-life pianist “Doc” Don Shirley who hired a New York City bouncer, “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (played by Viggo Mortensen) to drive him on a concert tour through the Deep South in 1962.

“HFPA, thank you for this honor,” Ali said in his acceptance speech, thanking the director of the film and Dr. Shirley himself before acknowledging his co-star. “Viggo, you’re an extraordinary scene partner. You pushed me every day. No days off. Thank you brother, love you.”

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In an interview with EW, Ali spoke about adding levity to the serious source material. “Things became funnier as we worked on them. I remember feeling this tension between giving over to [the humor] or fighting it for the sake of preserving this idea of doing a drama, which felt dishonest. The truth is that this is a quirky situation, and it has levity to it.”